Buried Treasure: The Wind – I Don’t Thing

A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve.

Mistranslations and nonsense titles are something I miss about old-school K-pop! It’s not often we get a track with a title as confounding as “I Got Thing.” The song’s Korean title “친구 사인 아닌 것 같아” roughly translates to “I Don’t Think It’s A Friend’s Signature,” which is also kind of head-scratchy but convinces me that the English title was meant to be “I Don’t Think.”

However, the important thing here is the music. The Wind have released another great album, and this song is its crowning achievement. This is the style of bright, punchy K-pop that instantly appeals to me. I love the big, stadium-ready synth riffs. I love the force with which the guys are singing and how the rap dances along the beat rather than detract from it. The chorus is pure candy floss, tethered to a hulking instrumental that gives it plenty of heft. The production borrows the effusive sentiment of 80’s music without simply becoming an 80’s pastiche. It reminds me of something we might have heard on NINE.i’s excellent album last year.

And, if we dig under the hood we’ll find producer/arranger Seo Yong Bae — one half of the duo that crafted GFriend and Astro’s debut eras. This entire album reminds me of early-Astro, so it’s no surprise to see his name pop up.

Grade: A-